How does a person become the best mentalist?

There is no doubt that the past few years have been years of growth and development in the field of mentalism and sensory art as a form of entertainment that is popular, widespread, and familiar, with many sensory artists working in the field in one form or another. In many ways, and with the utmost modesty (as much as we are capable…), the person who started and still leads this trend today is Lior Suchard, the leading master mentalist in Israel and even in the world. Today, we will focus on a question that often arises, mostly in the context of Lior and his achievements in the field: how does a person become the best mentalist?

Mentalism is a captivating and huge area of entertainment that is always renewing, updating, and reinventing itself. It is an area with especially strong capabilities, specifically among the best professionals in this field – capabilities that facilitate exciting and inconceivable achievements time after time, in front of a range of audiences. These are not superpowers or a “sixth sense,” but rather skills and abilities that are acquired and extremely developed, in a range of areas – from neural sciences and psychology to suggestion, guided imagery, and wonderful intuition. These are skills that must be acquired and developed constantly in order to become the very best and stay at a high level over time, and this is definitely part of the “secret” of Lior Suchard’s charm and a substantial part of the reason why he is considered the best in the field today.

How to become a mentalist – step one: learn mentalism!

Mentalism is an entertainment and stage art that is especially complex and rich, and which draws upon a range of skills and capabilities from the various areas that make up the amazing and wonderful world of mentalism. Therefore, the first step in becoming the best mentalist is to learn this field, deeply, precisely, and uncompromisingly.

Just like in order to become a renowned, excellent guitarist, it is necessary to learn a lot and invest significant personal resources, the same holds true regarding developing as quality, leading mentalist.

Today, there are many books, videos, and programs to study and train in the field of mentalism and sensory arts, in Hebrew and especially in English. In addition, it is also necessary to learn relevant elements and subjects that are closely connected with mentalism. This includes fundamental techniques and prominent ideas in mentalism that must be studied (fundamental, but not easy to implement!), and on this foundation, it is possible to then advance even further over time.

In mentalism, even at the highest levels such as where Lior Suchard has been for years, there are essentially fundamental techniques that are used for most of the segments and elements. These techniques must be learned well and professionally, understood thoroughly, and practiced many times.

Additional tips explaining how Lior Suchard became the best mentalist

In addition to constant, thorough learning, starting from the fundamentals and delving deeper and deeper until it is possible to develop new, breakthrough concepts, here are a few things that Lior Suchard did and that significantly helped him become the best mentalist today.

• Start at a young age: Lior started his journey in the world of entertainment at a very young age, performing at birthday parties as a magician and later with sensory art “tricks” at a range of events and situations. Starting as young as possible is beneficial!
• Constant innovation: In addition to learning fundamental techniques and the primary ideas in the stage art of mentalism – elements that include a huge range of topics and aspects related to science, entertainment, acting, and skills required in the field – it is necessary to constantly renew, think outside the box, and take the field and the mentalism segments to new, higher levels. This innovation is also expressed in performances themselves, as with Lior Suchard, every show is indeed new and different, original and unique.
• Constant practice: They say that practice makes perfect, and that’s definitely Lior’s approach to the field. Even at the level and recognition that he has reached, Lior never stops practicing, a lot and constantly, the skills, capabilities, and new elements in his shows. Working on one amazing and unique mentalism segment can sometimes take a whole year!

Of course, in addition to all of the above and a lot of hard work, in order to become the best mentalist, a person also needs to have some degree of natural talent for entertaining, talent as a captivating, funny, and high-quality performer before different types of audiences – and Lior brings that in crazy amounts!